City leaders are still deciding where to put Springfield's three new firehouses. The Springfield Fire Department along with city council members discussed this during the committee of the whole meeting Tuesday night. "To move forward, we need to know where those locations are. That's when we will know when to spend any money," Ward 10 alderman Ralph Hanauer said. Molly Berns, the executive director for the Springfield and Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission, says tracking population data is going to be key when making those types of decisions. "What we found out in the 2020 census initial review is that the population of Springfield continues to move to the west," said Berns. So when it comes to building infrastructure, population growth and movement are important factors.  

Palatine Village Council voted unanimously on Monday (Sept. 13) to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the Illinois Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) that will allow the village to receive more funds to cover the costs of transporting patients enrolled in Medicaid. Under the current setup, when the Palatine Fire Department bills Medicaid patients for ambulance services, Medicaid only pays a portion of the actual costs of transporting patients. The amount Medicaid paid is set based on state and federal laws, and fire departments must cover the difference out of their own pocket. According to a memo from Village Manager Reid Ottesen, the average payment under the current rates is $187 — significantly less than "nearly $2,000" it costs to transport an average patient.  

The plight of local fire departments is no secret. For the three elections since March 2020, Bourbonnais, Limestone Township and Grant Park fire districts each have sought voter referendums for a tax increase. All three districts told voters they were looking to hire staff, purchase equipment and replace apparatus. All three times, for all three districts, voters soundly defeated the referendums. This problem isn't unique to those districts. Over the next five to 10 years, the residents of Peotone could be forced to choose between tax increases or a diminished level of service from their fire district. Because of that possibility, the Peotone Fire Protection District is pursuing a ballot referendum of its own. But in this case, the district is asking voters in the June 2022 primary election to approve a consolidation with the Manhattan Fire District.  

Sugar Grove Fire Protection District officials reported no one was injured in a house fire Tuesday evening that left the home uninhabitable. Firefighters were called to the house on the 3200 block of Kenilworth Lane at 5:15 p.m. for reports of smoke showing at the two-story, single-family home. Firefighters observed smoke and fire in the front and rear of the house upon arrival. The blaze was under control after about 15 minutes, but crews were on scene for nearly four hours because of a gas leak at the home's meter that required repairs from gas company crews. The gas leak was not the cause of the fire, Chief Bill Perkins said. The cause remains under investigation and a damage estimate was not yet available, officials said.  

During Fire Prevention Week in Winnetka (October 3-9, 2021), public, private and parochial students are given fire safety presentations by our firefighters/paramedics. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has announced this year's theme is "Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety." Is there a beep or a chirp coming out of your smoke or carbon monoxide alarm? Knowing the difference can save you, your home, and your family! Make sure everyone in the home understands the difference between the sounds made by smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and how to respond to each. A general guide to smoke and carbon monoxide alarms follows, but learn the specifics of yours by checking the user guide or searching for information about the model and brand online.  

VIDEO: Nearly two dozen families were forced from their homes early Thursday after a fire spread through a Northeast Dallas apartment building, firefighters say. Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said firefighters were first called at 12:50 a.m. to the Oak Meadows Apartments located at 11050 Woodmeadow Parkway. First responders found heavy flames shooting through the roof of the 3-story apartment building, prompting an immediate call for backup. Firefighters attacked the fire and were able to stop it from spreading further by accessing a breezeway in front of the fire's direction of travel, Evans said. A total of 24 residences were damaged, Evans said, one of which was unoccupied. Twelve of the units were damaged by fire and the rest were uninhabitable due to water and smoke damage.  

A Los Angeles Fire Department captain severely burned in a May 2020 explosion inside a downtown L.A. warehouse has sued the owners of the building and a vaping supply shop housed there, accusing them of hazardous activity, premise liability and negligence. Victor Aguirre and his wife, Claudia Aguirre, filed suit Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court against property owner Steve Sungho Lee and his various companies along with the operators of Green Buddha and Smoke Tokes, a smoke and vape shop inside the East 3rd Street warehouse where the explosion occurred. Twelve firefighters were injured. After a criminal investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Los Angeles Police Department, they were charged with more than 300 criminal counts.  

VIDEO: For the first time since their heroic act was caught on camera, Wichita firefighters spoke with KSN News about their Labor Day fire rescue at an area apartment complex. Fireman Brian Doffing says apartment fires like this don't always end with the best results for victims, but being able to rescue everyone made this one of the types of calls is exactly what makes their job worth it. "Not all of them can go great," Doffing explained. "But every call giving everything you got and training every day, I think that's what makes it different here." "In your mind, things are moving so quickly, and you look at the situation, and you see what you did, but when you watch the video, you go through and start thinking, why did you make those decisions? And then you can analyze it," Doffing added.  

General Motors is advising some Chevrolet Bolt owners to not park their electric cars within 50 feet of other vehicles to reduce the risk of a potential fire spreading to nearby cars and trucks. The warning follows the Detroit automaker recalling more than 140,000 of the EVs produced since 2016 due to the risk of batteries spontaneously catching fire from "two rare manufacturing defects." GM has confirmed fires in at least 12 vehicles, but more continue to be reported. At least one of the recalled vehicles reportedly caught fire and spread to a Maserati and Hyundai in Sacramento, California. The parking advice is being given to customers that call into the company's call center about parking their recalled vehicles in parking lots or structures, according to GM spokesman Dan Flores.  

The National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday that it was awarding nearly $470 million to New York University Langone Health for research into the long-term effects of COVID-19 to ramp up an unprecedented national effort to study so-called "long COVID." The federal money will be divvied up by NYU to fund more than 100 researchers at institutions around the country, accelerating work to build a sweeping "meta-cohort" encompassing thousands COVID-19 survivors of various ages and backgrounds who are still experiencing symptoms more than a month after their initial infection. "The only way we're going to sort this out is with very large studies that collect lots and lots of data about symptoms, physical findings, and laboratory measures," NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told reporters at a briefing Wednesday.